Tuesday, April 21, 2009

One of the ways I do my research is by selecting books at random from my reference library and dibbing into them as the mood strikes.I had one of these moments yesterday when my husband returned from the allotment and remarked upon a tool someone was using to clear the cround. A long shaft with a blade on the end basically. We had no idea what it was called, but I thought I knew where to find out, went hunting in my library and came across the beastie in one of my reference books - The Forgotten Arts by John Seymour: A practical guide to traditional crafts. It's used in hedging and it's called a long handled slasher - I guess it does what it says on the tin!Anyway, now I had the book off the shelf, I began to re-acquaint myself with its pages and found myself reading all about the art of coopering while I was eating my lunch. The author John Seymour seems to think that coopering is allied to boat building. If you can craft something to keep water out, then you can equally craft an item to keep liquids contained - seems logical to me.When we think of coopering today, the main container word that has survived is 'barrel' and it has come to mean the shape rather than being a statement of quantity. We have a biscuit barrel on the sideboard for example, as well as a beer barrel - same shape different size. But once upon a time, each container had its own capacity name. A pin held four and half gallons. A firkin held nine gallons. A kilderkin 18 gallons, a barrel 36 gallons, a hogshead 54 gallons, a puncheon 72 gallons and a butt 108 gallons. One advantage the barrel has in its shape is that it can be easily handled, even if it contains a great weight. You might not be able to carry one, but you can roll it or trundle it i.e. tilt it on one of its rims and spin it along.

Barrels are apparently mentioned in the old testament and are also supposed to have been used in Classical Greece - although surely amphorae were the more usual type of container. The Romans had them and so did the Medievals. They're famously depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry when William the Conqueror is preparing to invade from Normandy.In England, oak staves for making barrels were imported by the Hanseatic league from Russia and Eastern Europe because oak from those countries apparently has less knots than English oak and therefore made a better product.I've also seen references to silver pennies being transported in barrels, and sheaves of arrows - although whether they were called barrels is another matter as I haven't seen the original text to see what they were called in Latin and Old French.The cooper's art also incorporated such domestic items as buckets, butter churns and bath tubs and was once a vitally important part of medieval life - now replaced by mass produced metal containers. When John Seymour published The Forgotten arts in 1984, there wasn't a single apprentice cooper to be had in all of Britain - which is sad, but a sign of progress.It would take the length of a novel to write about how a barrel is produced and since I'm still on library tour this week, I'm keeping it short, but I can highly recommend The Forgotten Arts by John Seymour for anyone wanting to take a look at skills we have lost or are in danger of losing, or are now hobby crafts, but which go far back in time. Subjects covered in good detail include ladder making, charcoal burning, wood turning, basket making, dry stone walling, wheel-wrighting, boat-building, saddle making, pottery, soap making (author reminisces about making soap from lion fat when living in Africa!) spinning, weaving and dyeing.It's about ready to go back on my bookshelf. Next random read to catch my eye just now is a history of Lambeth palace (I'm going to dip into the Medieval bits this evening) by Tim Tatton Brown.

Monday, April 13, 2009

I'm still on library tour for the next fortnight - Kensington Library on Wednesday with Katie Hickman, Wimbledon Library on Thursday 16th and then Knowle Library Solihull on Friday 17th. I'll be back to meatier blogging after that.But dropping in to say that a while ago I was asked to write a short story for an anthology being produced to mark the Romantic Novelists' Association 50th anniversary. I was specifically asked for a historical short story and I obliged with one about a washerwoman - I'd been researching medieval laundry practices around the time the request came in. It's titled 'A Clean Start' and readers who are as fond as I am of John Marshal might enjoy a certain cameo appearance!The book features stories from a range of authors who are all members of the RNA. Katie Fforde, Jill Mansell, Joanna Trollope etc. Also my friend Jan Jones who writes smashing Regency novels, although she tells me her story for this anthology is a contemporary.

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THE WINTER CROWN

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING

" Wow! I feel like someone used to watching movies in black and white but has just seen the first one in technicolor! " A personal letter from a reader.

"The Winter Crown ...will, I have no doubt, become the definitive fictional account of this remarkable woman.' ..." I’ve read a fair few fictional depictions of Henry II over the years and I must say that his portrait in The Winter Crown has the most authentic feel of them all."Kate Atherton, author of For Winters Night blog.

"Eeanor’s life story has been told many times over in historical novels but rarely with such insight, emotional intensity and page-turning readability." Pam Norfolk, Lancashire Evening Post.

"In the world of the arts, the Black Legend and the Golden Myth still hold sway, as seen in novels, such as Alison Weir's, which seek to portray both the scandalous, adulterous queen of legend and the powerful female ruler. Historians may shake their heads at the perpetuation of such myths, but many historical novelists such as Sharon Kay Penman and Elizabeth Chadwick are seeking to apply modern scholarship to their fiction, and consequently avoid the most egregious of the legends that surround Eleanor."

THE SUMMER QUEEN UK cover

US paperback cover. UK hardback

WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE SUMMER QUEEN

"What I loved about this novel, and I have felt this way about all of Elizabeth’s novels that I have read, is that she does not pander to stereotypes or write scandal for the sake of it. The historical Eleanor is defamed beyond belief- a whore chasing anything in trousers, a woman who committed incest with her uncle, a woman who was ‘ahead of her time’, and so on. Elizabeth’s Alienor is none of these things. She is treated fairly, as a woman of her own time, written in a believable way. Elizabeth does not go for scandal because she does not need to- the writing in this novel makes that very clear. Her scene setting is lovely, her character development top notch, and the book is a compulsive page turner. I couldn’t put it down." Sarah Bell

."The Summer Queen is a fabulous novel based on the most up-to-date and meticulous research. This is historical fiction at its best and I loved every page of it." Kate Atherton, blogger.

"I have read just about everything I can about Eleanor and enjoyed both biographical and fictional accounts of her life but I must say that your creation of Eleanor is the most compelling." Reader from Australia

"I loved the story; I loved the way the author wrote Alienor as a woman of her times instead of a thoroughly modern independent woman, or a slut in chase of anything in pants. As with all Chadwick novels, there's also the added plus of being sucked into another century with the sights, smells and sounds that wrap up a darn-near perfect reading experience. I couldn't put it down, and very sorry I'm going to have to wait for the next installment. Reader from the USA"

I often see the expressions, `fleshing out the history' and `making it real', and they more than apply here...the main aspect that made me keep turning the pages and burning the midnight oil? The things that I didn't know about Alienor.." Reader from Australia

"Chadwick has succeeded where many other novelists have failed by giving us not just the legend but the very human young woman – intelligent, determined, witty and sexy." Pam Norfolk. Lancashire Evening Post.